The dreams of the hostages are long and haunted, dreams born of sunstroke and dehydration, of never quite enough water that evaporates before it hits the tongue. Dreams of gunshots and burning vehicles, blistered feet and sweaty fear. The kind of dreams a housedog running with desert jackals would dream, animalistic and stripped back to the raw emotions. Simple needs of security and sustenance crowding out dreams of exotic vacations and ancient cultures.

The boy, Ahmed, knows none of this as he sits in the mouth of the mountain cave. Ahmed knows what he has been told, that he is to watch the three white men and two white women just like he would watch his goats. He is not to let them wander or stray; if they do, or if they try, he is to tell the men who brought them here.

He is not to take anything from them. He is not to trust them. He is not to tell anyone else that they are here. He is just to watch over them, his unusual flock. So Ahmed sits in the mouth of the mountain cave and watches the feverish, twitching bodies in the cool dark of the cave, his fingers wrapped around the dinars that the men who brought them here have given him.

Ahmed knows that all white men come from America. He's seen them in the desert before. They come in big fat cars with big fat wheels, or on camels and dressed like nomads but not quite right. The white men from America give him dinars as well and make pictures of him on little black or silver boxes; they point them at him and his goats and the picture appears on the back of the box. The Americans call the boxes cam-er-ah.

The Americans in the cave don't have cam-er-ah. They haven't given him any dinar. They didn't come in big cars or on camels, they came in walking with the men and didn't smile at him they way the Americans normally do. They are angry and dirty, the women weep and wail whether they are awake or not.

When they are awake, Ahmed sits on a rock outside the shallow cave and watches them from there. Sometimes the men who brought them come down to the cave with their guns, bringing water for the Americans and talking to them in short, strange words. Ahmed doesn't speak American; he doesn't know what they are saying, but the Americans do not shout at the men anymore and the men speak patiently when they speak to the Americans.

Sometimes one of the men will stay with the Americans so that Ahmed can round up his goats, which he does with whistles and swings of his stick and one eye on the man outside the cave. When Ahmed gets back and the man has gone Ahmed sits on the rock like the man did, stroking his bare chin the way the man with the gun stroked his long, thick black beard. He holds his stick across his knees and looks out across the rocky desert valleys, and tightens his hands around his stick whenever the Americans stand up.

One of the Americans, the one with the yellow beard and a peeling reddened face, sits at the back of the cave and watches Ahmed. Ahmed practices looking out across the valleys but doesn't look away from the American for too long. When the American stands up the others say something to him and he replies in a calm and quiet voice, walking slowly forwards through the cave. Ahmed grips his stick tight, and raises it above his head as the American comes near. The man stops and sits down again, still looking at Ahmed.

Ahmed holds the stick like a gun and points it at the American. 'American,' he says, a statement.

The American shakes his head and points at himself. 'Inglush', he says. He points at the American with the hat and says 'Ahrush', at the American without any hair and says 'Orstraylyun.' He points at the two American women and says 'Inglush, Ahrush.'

Ahmed points at himself and says 'Ahmed'. When the American with the yellow beard stands up again Ahmed shouts and points the stick like a gun, and the American sits down again.

Ahmed has not seen these men before, the ones who brought the Americans. They are not from his village; they are not from any of the villages in the valley, but the men of the valley know them and listen to them. When they arrived they went to speak to the headman of the village. The headman called Ahmed and told him to do as these men wished. He told Ahmed that the men were the guests of the village.

The men do not speak much to Ahmed, except to tell him what to do. They all carry guns but do not dress like policemen or soldiers. When the soldiers do come, driving along the road at the bottom of the valley in their trucks, the men get excited; they crouch behind rocks halfway up the valley wall and watch the soldiers go past, while two of them sit in the cave with the Americans and tell Ahmed to be quiet.

Ahmed asks them if they are hiding from the soldiers, but the men do not answer him. They put their fingers against their lips and tell him not to speak. The Americans do not speak either, not when the men with the guns are in the cave.

At nightfall one of the men comes down and sits in Ahmed's place. Ahmed takes his goats back to the village, eats and sleeps. Sometimes he can hear the men talking in the headman's house, sometimes quiet voices, sometimes angry ones. There are always angry voices after the soldiers have driven through the valley. Tonight there are lots of angry voices, late into the night and almost until the morning.

Ahmed wakes tired and groggy, shaken gently by his mother and sent out with his goats. The man with the gun grunts when Ahmed arrives at the cave and leaves without saying a word. The Americans smile at Ahmed and say 'gud mornin'; Ahmed smiles back before he remembers to put his serious face on.

The American with the yellow beard comes to the front of the cave and points at Ahmed. 'Ahmed' he says, and smiles.

'Inglush' Ahmed says, pointing at the man. The American nods and Ahmed smiles again before remembering himself.

One of the men with the guns brings water and food for the Americans, which Ahmed takes into the cave while the man points his gun at them. When the man is gone Ahmed sets back on his rock, but he watches the Americans greedily, thirstily. Ahmed has forgotten to bring his water with him; he will have to wait until this evening to get some now.

Orstraylyun puts water in the cup and holds it out to Ahmed, who shakes his head. Orstraylyun walks slowly to the front of the cave and puts the cup on the ground, then walks back into the cave.

Ahmed drinks the water quickly, then walks into the cave to give Orstraylyun the cup. He wasn't sure that they were proper Americans before, but now that they have given him something he is.

Later, Ahmed wakes on his rock with a start. The woman called Ahrush is shaking his shoulder gently and holding the cup with more water for him. He takes the cup and frowns at her until she goes back into the cave, then takes the cup into her when he is finished.

At noon the men with the guns come down to the cave, all of them together which they have not done since they arrived. They send Ahmed off with his goats, even though the goats have not wandered far, and tell him to take them further along the valley. Ahmed waves at the Americans as he leaves but they do not wave back this time. They are looking at the men with guns who stand there not speaking and who watch Ahmed leave until he is out of sight.

As the shadows re-appear and start to creep out across the ground, Ahmed herds his goats back towards the cave. One of the men with guns stops him far from the cave and tells him he is not to go back there now. He is not to go back there for many days. Ahmed asks him who will watch the Americans, or if he can say goodbye to the Americans but the man tells him that the Americans are already gone. He gives Ahmed more dinars and tells him that he is a good watchman.

Ahmed asks the man if more Americans are coming, asks him if the next ones will have cam-er-ah. The man just shrugs. There are always more Americans, he says.